Half of the local measures on the November ballot in Monterey County are for school district bonds.
Selling bonds allows the districts to borrow money to repair and expand buildings or add science labs and technology to schools.
The Monterey Peninsula Unified School District’s Measure A is a typical school bond.
Olson Elementary is one of the schools in the district that is eligible for bond money if the measure passes. The school opened 60 years ago when the population of Marina was about 7,000. The city is now four times that size and as the city grew, so did the student population.
“This school was only designed for a couple hundred students,” says principal Drew Coleman, “and now we are serving over 400 students.”
Portable classrooms were brought in to accommodate the increase in students. The portables were meant to be temporary but are still being used after 25 years. They show the wear and tear of a quarter of a century of use.
“The outside of the portables have damage," Coleman says, pointing it out. "The walkway ramps have damage. You can see some of the edging here. And so they're beyond their typical life.”
Monterey Peninsula Unified is asking voters to approve $340 million in bonds that cover a multitude of projects at several schools.
The district is one of the largest in Monterey County with 9,000 students spread over 23 campuses.
P.K. Diffenbaugh is the district’s Superintendent. He says selling bonds is necessary even though the district receives money from the state. The state payments can only be used for teachers, staff and other operational expenses. The payments cannot be used to purchase or maintain buildings and equipment such as replacing the portables at Olson Elementary or upgrading the pool, built 100 years ago, at Monterey High School.
If Measure A passes, the district will sell bonds on the open market and use the money for the improvements. To pay back the loans, it will impose an increase in property taxes over the next 30 years.
The increase, says Diffenbaugh, “would be around $50 per $100,000 of assessed value—not market value, assessed value.”
Homeowners can find their assessed value on their property tax bill.
Diffenbaugh says the average homeowner in this district likely would see another $240 a year on their tax bill if the bond passes.
There is an oversight committee and audits to make sure the money is spent properly.
But critics point out the district passed similar bond issues in 2010 and 2018. Those are still being paid off. Measure A would be on top of them.
Michael Pekin of Seaside is one of those critics. He wrote a letter to the editor published in the Monterey Herald. In it, he explained his opposition saying, “the Monterey Peninsula (Unified) School District repeatedly demands ever greater percentages of our income.”
He says he opposes the $40 to 60 million that will be used to build or acquire housing for teachers and staff.
“Why,” he asks of the district, “are you assuming the mantle of a property developer?”
Diffenbaugh responded by pointing out many schools provide low rent housing for teachers and staff including CSU Monterey Bay and Stanford University. The rental units will be run by an outside property management company and rented at below market rate. Teachers and staff with the lowest salaries will be prioritized and there will be a limit to how long tenants can stay.
Measure A—like all school bonds—needs at least 55 percent of the vote in order to pass.
